JANUARY 30, 2012
this week was really up and down. we had 2 days where we basically didnt do anything because of meetings, and then 2 days where we did a ton of stuff. and because it got really hot towards the end of the week again, it made it miserable around 5 everyday but then around 9 it was so cold that i wanted to put a sweatshirt on. weird the weather here.
tuesday we ran into something that i thought was really funny. we
were riding our bikes through the middle of the sector going to an appointment,
and when we got to one of the plaza areas where lots of people get together,
there was a church congregation in the middle with a megaphone preaching there.
so we went there and stopped and listened a little and it was hilarious. as
soon as we stopped, the guy that was talking saw us and started saying stuff
like "we dont come here preaching to you in white shirts and ties"
(cuz they were in normal clothes) and other stuff like that. and the other
people had flags that they were waving around and saying amen every now and
then. then after the guy got done talking, he was walking around a little and
so elder vilar called him over to talk a little. and elder vilar asked him why
they have the flags and his answer was "i dont know. apparently it has
some biblical meaning to it or something like that but i wouldnt know, i dont
read the bible. i just come here and tell people things that ive heard before
that i like". and when he said that i couldnt help but laugh. then elder
vilar told him that we come wearing white shirts and ties to show some respect
towards christ and he said something about that he wasnt talking about us, he
was talking about others. it was rediculous.
thursday we had a zone conference. and ours was in
melipilla, in the same building that i started the mission in. and being there
really brought back a ton of memories from being in that ward. thinking about
all the people that i know there and all the good times and experiences that i
had. it was weird being there though for missionary reasons and not on sunday
or during a church activity. and it also made me realize something, that our
church buildings are SO much bigger than the ones that we have here. cuz i
remember thinking when i first got to chile that that building was kinda small
and i felt like it should be bigger. but when we went there on thursday and i
walked in, the first thing that came to my mind was "wow this building is
HUGE!" so i cant even imagine what im gonna think when i get back from the
mission and go to church that first sunday. i might go crazy. something else
though that was weird for me was that i realized how fast the mission goes. cuz
when i got to chile and lived with elder young in melipilla, he had just a
little more than a year in the mission. and on thursday he gave his going home
testimony that all the missionaries give the last zone conference before they
go home. and he goes in march. thats crazy. i cant believe im almost to the
year mark.
friday was one of those busy days that we had this week.
but the best part of the day was the fact that i started an english class at
the church for anyone who wants to learn english. it was a little bit of a
struggle getting started cuz ive never taught english before to anyone for any
reason. so to start teaching a class to a bunch of latin people by myself will
definitely be interesting. but it should be fun. and we are hoping that after a
little while we can possibly get some non members to come and that will give us
more people to teach.
then sunday was basically a resting day. (go figure, in spanish
its called the day of rest and its the first time during the mission that ive
actually been able to rest) but it was cuz we had a big meeting with the whole
stake and the ward council from each ward. and president king came and talked
about some stuff to try and make everything better. because really its a
district, not a stake. so president king has control over everything. but the
district is making a push right now to become a stake in march. so the meeting
was so that everyone learns more and the branches are better. but we left our
house around 5 after sleeping some and then got back around 830 and went over
to a members house cuz we didnt have any other plans. so it was a good day.
with the pictures, there are a couple from our table during
lunch at the zone conference. one with elder young. another with elder
christensen who was in the office when i first got to chile and we have a
pretty good relationship cuz we spent a whole day together one time while elder
keogh was doing his visa stuff. 2 others are from one of the nights when we
went to the house of hermana aida and cynthia (members in our ward). we have a
family home evening with them every week and we are trying to work on the husband
of hermana aida a little cuz he isnt a member. another is when we went to their
house to do service. one is our drawing of the creation which is the lesson we
taught this sunday for gospel principles. and the last is when elder vilar and
i were playing jenga in the pension one day.
anyway that was my week this week. i hope that everyone is
doing well. take care
hey
everyone how is it going? good i hope. alright one quick thing that i forgot to
mention from last week that president told us during the zone conference.
basically he made an announcement that we all need to get our emergency bags
ready because here in chile, we never known when we could have something big
happen with all the earthquakes that there are here. and then he gave us a
little statistic. since the year started, or in other words, the first of
january, there have been over 350 earthquakes. over 30 of which have been able
to be felt. and thats a lot more than normal. and with all that activity, its
predicted that towards the end of february we could have a very big earthquake
in the north of chile, on the same level as the one that they had here 2 years
ago that was one of the strongest earthquakes in history. basically president
just told us, get ready lol.
this week was also kinda slow for us, also. i dont know
whats up these last 2 weeks but it seems like with it being summer, everyone is
gone. all the people we are teaching either went to the beach or are working
overtime for the summer. so we havent had a lot to do. but what we started to
do this week is work more with the members and ask them for names of people we
could visit. and all the names they give us right now are just inactive
members. i guess thats what happens when you have a list of 1100 members and
only have about 100 coming to church. and really its fine for me if thats all i
do in this sector is visit less active members. but still it kinda sucks.
thursday we were in our house around 3 after we had lunch
when an alarm sounded from the firehouse meaning that there was a fire close.
and for the last couple weeks that has been something normal cuz there are lots
of fires here during the summer because it doesnt rain at all and there is wind
everyday. but with this fire it was bigger and much closer than normal. it was
only about a mile away from our house and so from the second floor, we could
see all the smoke and we had about 10 firetrucks go by our house. then the
whole day there were ashes falling and it made it hard to breathe. and at night
when i went to bed, i had to clean my bed cuz i had ashes all over my bed.
pretty sure thats not great for my health but oh well.
friday we had a family home evening but with the whole
primary in the church. we were there to support the primary presidency more
than for missionary purposes, although we did have a lady there that wasnt a
member (that lady teaches english in northern chile too so it was cool talking
to her) but it was a lot of fun. these 2 girls did a little dance thing, some
of the parents shared scriptures, elder vilar did a ¨magic trick¨ with a boy in
our retention, and there were a few other things. then after that, we had the
english class. and im not gonna lie, with the lady there who teaches english, i
was kinda nervous. dont ask me why i would be nervous teaching english if i
speak it and pretty much everyone else there doesnt know much but i was. weird.
then saturday morning we did some service for a lady in
the ward that is redoing her house a little cuz she had termites. so we were
there all morning with a couple guys from the ward. and it was a lot of fun. we
took out a metal thing that she had outside that wasnt doing anything anyway so
i dont know why she had it. and then we built a new support thing for her wall
before they spray one more time.
something crazy that just happened, and also the reason
that this is getting to you a little later than normal, is that i was sitting
there typing this email to send, when the power went out in the place that i
was at. and then when the power came back, i couldnt turn on the computer for
some reason. and then by that time, we had an appointment with someone in 10
min, so we had to go. so i wasnt able to finish. but now im at the house of a
member using his computer so that i can finish this email.
today for pday we had a zone activity with the zone
of melipilla. we played soccer on a full size field and it was fun playing on a
field bigger than a basketball court. to be able to fully run for once. and to
make it all better, we won 10-8. i had 3 goals and 2 assists and we controlled
the entire game basically, even though they still scored 8 goals. but thats
besides the point. the only thing that i thought was a little sad is that i was
one of the best players on the field. and i think its sad cuz supposedly all
latins do is play soccer. it made me realize that they all like to play baby so
that they dont have to move much. but when they get on a big field, they get a
little lazier.
anyway that was my week. the pictures here are a couple
from the family home evening, a couple from service on saturday, and then a
couple from soccer today. i hope that you all have a good week. take care
well
changes came and went this week. it seems so weird to me that the whole change
has already gone by cuz it still feels like just yesterday that i got to el
monte. but the good thing is that elder vilar and i are staying together
another change here and so i am looking forward to another fun 6 weeks with
him. especially cuz we had a pretty good week this week.
wednesday this week we did divisions again. this time i was
in cordillera with elder west from idaho. he is only in his second change but
he impressed me with how well he can already speak spanish. it seems like
missionaries are arriving being able to speak better and better every change.
but we had a long day cuz everything fell through like it normally does on
divisions. so we just walked around most of the day talking and doing some
contacts. the worst part of that though is that im not used to walking anymore
from the bikes so my legs hurt at the end of the day. and it made me think
about how bad it will be when i leave el monte cuz that we be after 4 or 6
months of riding bikes. itll be like how i felt at the start of the mission lol
but oh well
thursday we spent like half the day with hna aida cuz we
went over to her house to do service in the morning, then we had lunch with
her, and then at night we had our normal noche de hogar with them that we
always have now. but it was a really fun day. and something that is good is
that we are starting to talk with her husband a little more. hna aida told us
that we are the first missionaries in 12 years to get him to say something more
than hola to us. so even though we might not be teaching him yet and be getting
him ready to get baptized, im glad to know that we are having a little affect
on him and that even if we dont ever get to teach him, maybe someday he will
change his mind because of us and will listen to the missionaries and get
baptized.
then friday was another long day. in the morning we had to
do our profound cleaning of the house. i hate cleaning so much. some things
never change lol but i do always like how things look after cleaning and moving
everything around a little. it just feels better. there was one thing worth
mentioning though, and thats what is in the picture that i sent. we found that
spider in the bath tub about halfway through cleaning. i asked a couple people
here and they said that that spider is the famous rincon spider here. its super
fast and is extremely poisionous. apparently it can kill someone in a couple
days or something like that if they dont get a bite taken care of quickly. but
its the first time that ive seen one so big. all the others that ive seen before
were just little tiny ones so when this one showed up, it was crazy. but it was
funny cuz after taking the picture, we used the ruler to try and cut its legs
off and it was funny watching it race around in circles trying to get away. but
i ended up cutting it in half with one of my attempts at cutting a leg off. so
we just washed it down the drain. we are definitely gonna be on the look for
others now though over the next couple days. after all that though, we didnt
have much to do though cuz we took a youth out with us and everything fell
through. so we basically spent the day setting appointments for other days.
saturday we got a little scare from one of our
investigators, victor. we called him during the day to see if he would be home
at night to visit him, but someone else answered his phoneand told us that he
had gotten in a car crash and was in the hospital but was doing alright. so we
were really worried about him the rest of the day. finally sunday night we got
a hold of him and he was doing a lot better but was still a little sore. but im
glad that he didnt get seriously hurt.
also saturday we helped a less active family move out of
their house cuz they had some problems with the person that owns the house. so
we spent a couple hours there. and we had a lot of fun with them and joked
around a lot which i think was good for them cuz they dont get out a lot and
they have been having a lot of hard times lately and needed to be happy for a
little. and thats what elder vilar and i are best at, making people laugh and
have fun. and it was also good cuz the daughter promised us that once their
family gets out of this situation, that she will come to church. so hopefully
that happens.
sunday for us was just a day to look for names of less active
people that the ward gave us. they gave us a list of the first 25 men on the
ward list and asked us to figure out who is active, who isnt, and who doesnt
live there anymore. basically we are just doing a cleaning of the ward list
which kinda sucks cuz id rather do better stuff with our time but at least we
can help a little. and maybe we can find some people to teach from passing by
so many families that arent all full member families.
the reason i liked this week so much was cuz we found several new
people that we are gonna start teaching that either are pretty interested or
can get baptized quickly with a little work. an example from yesterday is a
girl that we talked to while we were looking for those names. it was a house
that was on our list and the girl said that the person didnt live there and
neither does she. but she wants us to come by her house sometime to talk cuz
her and her pareja are really interested in coming to our church sometime. cuz
she has a neighbor that got baptized in august named nicole that always invites
her to come but they havent come yet cuz of a problem that they are having with
a different member. but if she gets married i could see her getting baptized
really quickly and that would be awesome. it showed me 2 things though. how
important it is for members to mention things about the church to their friends
and invite them to things. and it also showed me how important it is that we
always show a good example to other people cuz you never know how you could
affect the progress of someone else around you. but there are several other
people like her that we found this week so im excited for it.
anyway i hope that you all have a good week. take care
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